Keren was really awesome and pushed through more than an hour of screaming baby to first get him calm, and then eventually to sleep – it is quite something to have that endurance on the first time around with someone else's child. Keren called us as we arrived, and all we could hear was screaming baby. He had woken about 15 minutes after we left and immediately started wailing.

After some tips on how to get him to go to sleep, and lots of phone calls and text messages back and forth Keren said she was fine and that we should go and have dinner. A little while after we sat down she let us know he was smiling again and doing fine….watching a Whitney Houston tribute 🙂

Then after about an hour, he got tired again, started crying and then passed out…and Keren was definitely not going to move after that.

Thanks to Keren, and her willingness to push through we got to enjoy a great meal and an evening together – thank you little sis, and well done!

Bugga, bugga, fly baby – always lots of fun

and this is definitely not Eli's first laugh, but he is about the same age Grace was, so the evidence would suggest that 5 month olds find floppy toys funny. And I love Grace's flashbomb.

Eli has been gnawing everything at the moment. I'm not sure what happened, but Eli started crying so Grace says, "You can chew on my arm to make you feel better."

We asked Grace what her favourite meal is and she (surprisingly) said lasagne. And your favourite lunch? Roll. And your favourite breakfast? Croissant!

Yesterday while she was bathing she says to me, "I'm banned from the water station," – the water station being the one at school. With all the (messy) pouring that has been going on I wasn't too surprised, and when I asked at school it was exactly as we thought – she has been pouring water into all of the glasses and making a big mess all over the floor. Seen as it is inside one of the teachers has told her to ask for help when she wants water, and when Donné collected her today she was outside with some cups and the jug practising her pouring.

Last night I said we would put out some water and she could pour as much as she wanted to, as long as she cleaned all the cups afterwards.

Eli was showing off his fancy footwork – it is amazing how well he can intentionally manipulate something with his feet.

He was definitely working to get it closer, it wasn't just a fluke – this was the second time he did it.

On the way home from swimming she says to me, "I'm a kid, and Eli's a kid. That makes two kids…..we need twelve kids, then we can all play together." I think we'll need a bigger car.

Grace wanted to play pass the parcel at the end of the day. She would wrap something (a book, game, plastic fruit, etc.) then sit with us and say, "Sing!" Around that parcel would go, and if the singing happened to stop when she had it the excitement was as if she really had just won a special present that she had never seen before.

My beautiful wife and children….the one who looks half dead on the right is a result of an hour of swimming with friends.

Yesterday was the school's 10th birthday, so they had cake and ice cream at school, and got to play outside in the sprinkler all day. It was also ballet, and Grace dressed herself. So let's see how that went…

You might notice the leotard is a bit low cut at the front….on backwards. And the tights….well, they're on the outside.

What was even funnier was when she took her clothes off and she looked like she had taken a splash in a chocolate ice cream fountain – her legs where covered with chocolate ice cream drips.

We had an awesome visit with some special friends this morning and Grace was just loving playing with Jason and Em.

Little Eli has been working on his sitting. He is getting surprisingly stable….this photo isn't faked – he was really sitting there quite comfortably for a while.